Spectacular museums, great hotels and those wonderful canals: a visit to world-class Amsterdam

Sure you can gawk at the women in the windows in the Red Light District. Lots of people do. But there's far more to this cool, urban city than that. Check out some of the best art museums on the planet, have a beer in a historic cafe and bed down at the chic Dylan Hotel for a different side of this Dutch city.

Like many great cities of the world, I think
Amsterdam
can be just about anything you want it to be. You can wander around the red light district and check out the ladies in the windows and giggle at the displays in the sex shop windows, which many tourists appear to do with great delight. Hey, it’s your holiday.

Sure, it’s interesting – and sad at the same time – to check out that part of town. But there’s so much to see in the central city, including a beautiful old church, some great “brown cafes” and a great chocolate shop. And a short stroll from there are the great canals of the city, with wondrous architecture and great old homes and the fabulous Dylan Hotel.

A buddy and I downed some tasty Dutch beers at a cool “brown café” called Int Aepjen. The story goes that back in the day the trading around here was done in apes, not a normal currency. Which is why you see stuffed monkeys and other ape related stuff inside. It’s a very cool, old-style bar with tons of atmosphere. As we drink it all in (sorry about that) my friend notices an odd bit among the old bottles of booze. Sure enough, I glance over and see a bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

A complete change of pace is close by at Puccini, a high-end, family-run chocolate shop adjacent to the Old Church. It’s an area the city is hoping to spruce up and places like Puccini, with their killer chocolates in flavours such as cranberry, anise and lemongrass, can only help.

Owner Debbie Van Veldam says her family wanted to see the city centre cleaned up, so basically decided to put their chocolates where their mouths were.

“We’ve already noticed some changes,” she said. “We had some benches out in front of the store and at first we didn’t like them because homeless people were sleeping on them. But now our customers buy a chocolate or two and sit on the benches and eat them.”

Here she grins a big grin.

“Then they come back in and order more to take home.”

I use my
Amsterdam city card
(a great way to save a bundle on top sites) to book a canal tour. I found the commentary a little dry, and they only mentioned the Anne Frank House in passing. But we learn about the city's history as we pass gorgeous homes and bridges festooned with bright red geraniums and house boats with lime green deck chairs and folks have a coffee or a glass of wine.

As we motor along, I spot signs for the Amsterdam cheese museum and the city’s tulip museum. I also see a sign for a museum dedicated to bags and purses and immediately think they should pair up with the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.

Our tour commentator talks about poor quality drinking water in the old days of Amsterdam.

“In the 1700’s,” she says, “beer was an important beverage."

My buddy and I look at each other quizzically and say, “You mean, as opposed to now?”

Much better than the canal tour to my point of view were our museum visits. I hadn’t been to the
Rijksmuseum
since 1979 and was hugely impressed with the design. The entrance is huge and airy and bright and the art work remains sensational. They not only have Rembrandt’s masterpiece The Night Watch but also great works from Van Gogh and Vermeer (apparently, like Van Gogh, not so well regarded when he was doing his best painting). I spotted a Monet painting of a road on the Cote d’Azur in France that I don’t recall ever seeing.

I loved Vermeer’s The Milkmaid and also Portrait of a Girl Dressed in Blue by Verspronck. I’m only slightly embarrassed to say I also was quite taken with the details in a series of doll houses they had on display. Very cool and intricate. Just don’t tell anyone how much I liked them.

I also spot a painting by Pieter de Hooch called “Man Handing a Letter to a Woman in the Entrance Hall of a House.” I guess all the short, snappy painting names were taken.

They also had some cool bits in the modern art section on the top floor. I quite liked one by Karel Appel called The Square Man (now, there’s a short title) with lots of bright colours and likenesses of a man with a dog.

The museum was sprinkled with funky sayings on yellow paper, with bits saying things like “It’s all too much” or “Art can’t be about my life.” My favourite was a line that said, “Only prestigious objects can tell us important things. I love the Vermeers, but the airport is a nightmare.”

It was an interesting day. I almost got kicked out of the Rijksmuseum for knocking into a metal sculpture. And for taking a photo in an area I wasn’t supposed to at the Vincent Van Gogh museum. In fairness, the “no photo” sign wasn’t very big.

The Rijksmuseum is outstanding. I think the
Vincent Van Gogh Museum
, just down the road, is even better. You can see Van Gogh’s evolution from dark paintings that looked very similar to what his contemporaries are doing to the bold, bright strokes he became famous for before his death.

I hadn’t paid much attention to the Japanese prints he had made but they’re interesting. I’m more taken with his work in France, however. And I can’t help but notice that he painted quite a few self-portraits. He’d be quite comfortable with an iPhone selfie, I think.

One surprising find is a stunning painting called Sunset at Montmajour (see photo). It’s a new discovery, and you can watch a video that shows how they proved it be a Van Gogh original. Still, the video doesn’t say where they found it, or how, or when.

I did a bit of research online and found it had been lying in an attic in Norway since 1908 and wasn’t put on display until last year. Apparently it’s only on loan for a while, so you might want to hustle to see it.

The museum also has a spot where you can look at Van Gogh’s works with a microscope, an experience that delivers a crazy world of colour and strokes and more colour. Some of the close-ups I saw looked like swirling galaxies of light and brush strokes. Very cool.

We also wandered past the flower market and took an hour to check out the
Museum Van Loon
on Keizersgracht, with its stunning gardens and lovely interiors. It’s a pretty spot, and a great respite from the hubbub of Amsterdam. Great for adults but not a spot for kids, I’d think.

We dined on wonderful Indonesian cuisine at
Blue Pepper
, a swanky spot with a bright blue wall and bright blue ceiling and what looked like an enormous, 15 meter long flat radiator suspended from the ceiling with halogen lights poking out like a Star Trek design. The food was sensational; perfectly spiced seafood and beef and noodles and a bevy of other dishes.

We also had great Italian food at Casa di David, including a terrific charcuterie platter and a pasta dish with beef tenderloin; a new one on me.

Jim Byers photo

The lovely courtyard at The Dylan Amsterdam.

We had the good fortune to stay at
The Dylan
, a wonderful hotel on the Keizersgracht that’s close to just about everything. It’s a great mix of old school infrastructure (think small, connected rooms for the lobby area and dining rooms, plus a fabulous courtyard) and new world design. I had a junior suite overlooking the canal with lots of dark wood and grey floors and walls with a dark wood panel board over the bed and large, grey, glass vases. There was a nice shower and a huge tub and a fancy coffee maker, as well as free Wi-Fi.

Instead of high tea, The Dylan offers something called “High Wine,” where they mix four types of luscious wines with great food. My favourite (and my friend’s) was a dish of sautéed whiting with fregola (a form of pasta), broccoli, carrots and dried thyme, paired with a glass of crisp Verdicchio. Wowza.

It was a smashingly good experience, especially on a warm day in the quiet courtyard. Highly recommended.

There’s a great lobby/bar area with a big fireplace, and the breakfast was outstanding; including great cheeses and bread, lovely berries, yogurt, eggs and cold bottles of sparkling wine to go with your orange juice. Or to drink on its own.

I didn’t get a chance to try it, but the hotel also is home to the restaurant Vinkeles, a Michelin-starred dining spot that gets fantastic reviews.

All in all, a great hotel in a terrific, quiet location. Super helpful staff, too; they even gave us orange
Holland
jerseys to wear out to the Holland-Spain World Cup game. Which Holland won handily. I was wearing an orange shirt with the Holland jersey on top and we watched the game outside a sports bar. Folks were understandably going made whenever Holland scored, which was often. When the game was over, some guy from France I didn’t know insisted on congratulating me for my country’s win (he thought I was Dutch) and gave me a big hug.

Go Holland! And thanks again to
KLM
for the flight to Amsterdam and back. They did a great job.

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